What will podcasts become in 10 years? Join us as we explore the future of digital audio.
How will listenership mature in the future? Will we outgrow our evolutionary need for story? Child psychiatrist, author, and horror enthusiast Dr. Steven Schlozman, Dr. Martin Spinelli, Dr. Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, Dr. Sylvia Chan Olmsted, and Podfly's own Corey Coates offer insights. Story audiences mature and trends shift. Plus, with more diverse groups of light podcast listeners tuning in, there's more opportunity to reach new niches. But what kinds of stories will these new audiences want today and 10 years from now? We look at shifts in audience expectations by examining Frankenstein: the book by Mary Shelley, the film with Boris Karloff, and updates like Blade Runner and Terminator. We still fear artificiality and continue to love stories that wrestle with what we most repress. But what monsters do we face today? And what about in 10 years?
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The Big Takeaways:
- Will people tune in to AI chatbots? Why do we listen to podcasts? How are listenership trends changing? How will they change in the future? How will the future of an audience change stories in the future?
- Dr. Steven Schlozman, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth, and child psychiatrist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
- Dr. Martin Spinelli, Professor of Podcasting & Creative Media at University of Sussex, University of Sussex (on Twitter @exilewriter)
- Co-author with Lance Dann of Podcasting: The Audio Media Revolution.
- Co-creator with Lance Dann of companion podcast, For Your Ears Only.
- Executive Producer and writer on The Rez, a sci-fi podcast for 9–11 year-olds that covers a lot of the subjects we've talked about in this episode, especially how to overcome AI ubiquity and promote pro-social human relationships. The clip we played came from Episode 2, "Sav Smarts."
- "I was totally transfixed. I knew something had shifted in our audio universe." — Dr. Martin Spinelli
- "It is you speaking to me in my ears, actually in my ear canals, in my skull, in my body, your voice is there inside me." — Dr. Martin Spinelli
- Corey Coates, Creative Director, Podfly
- "The role of an artist in the world is to observe it, feel it, to interpret it, internalize it, and then reflect it back to you in a way that you've never seen it before." — Corey Coates, Podfly
- "We're so focused on the medium … that we're losing the plot of what it is we're trying to do — connect our perspective as a human with other humans." — Corey Coates, Podfly
- Dr. Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies and American Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University (on Twitter @VampireSorcha)
- Dr. Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, Professor of Media Production, Management, and Technology and Director of Media Consumer Research, University of Florida
- Chan-Olmsted, S., & Rang Wang. 10 October 2020. "Understanding podcast users: Consumption motives and behaviors". New Media & Society.
- "The uses and gratifications paradigm proposes that individuals are very active media consumers. We're looking for something to gratify. We have certain needs." — Dr. Sylvia Chan Olmsted, University of Florida
- "The biggest development now is we are moving from heavy users to more light users. Now we have a much more diverse group of podcast users." — Dr. Sylvia Chan Olmsted, University of Florida
- "The biggest growth is 12-plus; 12 to 24-something; we're talking about young kids now listening too. … Maybe they learn something about a certain topic on TikTok that was interesting. And then they use podcasts to dive deeper into that topic." — Dr. Sylvia Chan Olmsted, University of Florida
- How will the future of an audience change stories in the future? This question is hard to answer. Maybe impossible. Here are some frameworks we're using to think about it:
- Copy the Movies: Look at established media like film and television to see what trends are occurring there that might be primed for podcasts, like casting away framing devices or pushing the boundaries of interactivity.
- Unleash the Beast: Mine what culture represses, and bring that to the fore, like Mary Shelley did, like Elvis did. One thing we're repressing is the weirdness of ubiquitous AI and constant data collection. Can we make art against that that feels new somehow?
- Tell Your Truth: You are a wonder of the cosmos, a highly sensitive instrument of love and truth that can nourish the world with your singular voice. Howl into the universe the way only you can … Look at you. You're alive!
- Stop gaming an audience and make some art.
Other Resources
- Buzzsprout. 4 October 2022. "Podcast Statistics and Data. [September 2022]" Webpage.
- Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein (Project Gutenberg)
- Milton, John. Paradise Lost (Project Gutenberg)
- Frankenstein (film) 1931. YouTube. (Available for rent)
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